The Squidster and a Beginning of an Era
by TheNameIsGrace
Summary: The first of many short stories of Lily and James' relationship same characters, same story, different times.


February 4, 1995 

'The Black Lake on the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is the fifth largest mythical-creature dwelling space on Earth. According to records from the late 1970's, a monstrous sea creature, taking the form of a Giant Squid, was planted into the lake by one of the students who accidentally added a strong Swelling Solution to his new pet. Fortunately for the residents of Hogwarts School, the Squid turns out friendly, even helping students falling into the lake back out of it. The mythical lake also holds mermaids, red caps, and hinkypunks. Though it is rumored there is more down there, investigation has not been authorized . . .'

Hermione Granger read this passage in _Hogwarts, A History _for what seemed like the millionth time. She was skimming through the book, looking for some new . . . thing . . . that was mentioned which could possibly be used to help Harry with the task in the lake and what the Golden Egg must mean. Vaguely, she wondered if Harry's parents were there when the Giant Squid had been set loose . . .

February 4, 1975

**"Mr. Black, _what did you do?" _**Professor Kettleburn inquired in horror to Sirius Black, one of his fourth year students. The boy was bewildered, what **had** he done? Why was his squid _growing? _They were supposed to be shrinking to the size of a Knut, not growing at the rate of a tomato plant on steroids. The squid was now roughly the size of the newest Comet model, three times the size it had been. Unfortunately, the tank that the squids were being held in didn't have that much more room in it to hold the squid, which had been deemed 'The Squidster' by Sirius when the project had been assigned a week ago. Changing the size of the squid had been supposed to be easy, but for Sirius, when you weren't paying attention to what you were mixing in Potions (it was a joint project; half for potions, half for COMC) and what you were pouring onto your controlled variable. The Squid was still growing, as Sirius watched it in panic. James, his best friend, was cracking up a few feet away, Peter joining in after a minute, and Remus rolling his eyes, though quite amused.

"Levitate it to the lake, you wanker!" The professor yelled at him, going red in the face. Sirius whipped out his wand, though dropping it on the grass, and fumbling to say the spell.

"Win . . .wingar . . .Professor, I can't remember it!" He cried in sheer panic, as Lily Evans rolled her eyes.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" She yelled, pointing her wand at it. It levitated, and she directed it towards the lake, the rest of the class (Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs) following hesitantly. Sirius followed in a daze, with the rest of the Marauders following him, James still laughing extremely hard. They arrived as Lily flipped the tank over, and the squid, almost two times her size now, into the lake's murky depths. She set the tank down on the shore, as the professor gave her 15 points for Gryffindor, and taking away 15 from Gryffindor because of Sirius' slip. James kept laughing, as the Squid skimmed over the surface happily.

Lily Evans walked by them, on her way back to her own squid (which she had deemed 'Case Number 1,254,345'), hitting Sirius upside the head.

James dissolved into a fit of giggles once more as she turned on him. "Potter?"

"Yeah Evans?"

"Stop laughing. Yours is wrong also." She informed him, and then walked away. Sirius rubbed the back of his head.

"If she doesn't make prefect, I'll eat my foot." Sirius commented, as Remus nodded.

The wind whipped around their faces as they pulled their winter robes around them tighter, the sun shining, though not offering warmth. James watched Lily walk over to her friends once more, suddenly not quite minding he'd been scolded. He watched her toss her straight, long, silky, luscious, glittery auburn hair over her smooth skinned shoulders. Remus waved a hand in front of his face, which seemed to snap him out of it.

"Yeah?" He asked, looking up at the other three, who were looking at him incredulously. "What?" He asked, short tempered all of a sudden.

"Since when have you been hot for her?" Sirius asked loudly, causing some of the other students who were actually working once more.

"Who?" James asked them, his eyes finding their way back to her.

"Dia Prewett." Sirius said, wanting to get his attention. James' head quickly turned to them, a look of disgust on his face.

"**_Dia's my cousin, you pervert."_** He informed him, disgusted, causing Sirius to snigger this time.

"Evans. When did you start liking her?"

"I don't like Evans." James said coolly, trying to keep the blush away from his face. Unfortunately, having a best friend like Sirius meant that he knew you too well.

"I'll ask her out for you." He offered, not waiting for a reply, and _obviously _not seeing the look of anger that exploded onto James' face. "EVANS!" Sirius called, James clapped a hand over his mouth. Sirius jabbed him in the ribs, which made James double over and Sirius getting the chance to walk over to the Gryffindor ladies lined up next to each other, Lily and Dia finished.

"Yes Black?" She inquired neutrally.

"I just found out that my friend over there . . ." James tackling him interrupted his speech. Kettleburn turned quickly, eyes flashing at the two boys now wrestling. "He . . .likes . . ."

"_Sirius!" _James said, trying to mask his voice.

". . .you!" Sirius finished, receiving a punch in the jaw. Lily rolled her eyes as Kettleburn stomped over, waving his middle finger at them importantly (he didn't have an index finger on either hand).

"BLACK, POTTER, DETENTION!" He yelled at them, and they quickly disentangled themselves from each other. James' face was beet red and a bruised ego, opposed to Sirius, who had a now purple bruise on the side of this otherwise gorgeous face. Lily sighed, rolling her eyes once more at the two of them.

The next day, in Transfiguration, McGonagall was surprised to see the bruise still on Black's face. "Mr. Black, why did you not have Madam Pomfrey clean up your bruise that I understand is from Mr. Potter?" She asked crisply from the front of the classroom, at the two boys sitting together in the back row. James sniggered 'discreetly', receiving an elbow in the ribs.

"Minnie, don't . . ."

"Black, what is my name?"

"_Professor _Minnie," She sighed and pursed her lips, not bothering to correct him. The two looked at each other, laughter in their eyes. "I needed a souvenir to remind me of the day I let The Squidster into the lake and James started liking Evans." James turned purple, as everyone sniggered except the professor. Lily rolled her eyes, in the second row, next to Dia, James' cousin, and Mafalda Hopkirk, 'May'. May and Dia laughed, May at Sirius, because she had a crush on him, and Dia because of the thought that James liked Lily, the two that were least likely to ever be together.

"Mr. Black, I think that you have disturbed the class enough for one day with you're . . .insights. Let us get back to transfiguring a warthog into a pig, which of course, are cousins in the same animal tree." Her eyes flitted from Dia to James, who looked remarkably alike, and to Sirius and Bellatrix, who also looked scarily alike. Bellatrix was sitting quietly at her seat, next to Rodolphus Lestrange, taking notes on a piece of parchment with a luxurious Fwooper feather quill. "Now, the reason for this is to do a slight mutation of an animal's structure. We will not have warthogs in this class, but . . ." The class droned on and on to James Potter. He took notes quietly, doodling in the margins, drawing Quidditch plays and notes to Sirius.

'What do you think of her?' He wrote, elbowing Sirius lightly to get his attention. The other _cheveux noir _looked over, and shrugged, answering 'She's a little uptight.'

James nodded, taking his page back, and paying attention to McGonagall once more. She was showing some kind of complex diagram that had to do with wand motions and incantations. Well, that wasn't interesting.

His eyes wandered around the classroom, and settled on Evans once more. She was actually paying attention to McGonagall, all three of them were. He knew that Dia wouldn't be any source of help to getting her to go out with him. All girls thought that you had to ask them yourself if you wanted to go out with them, which was completely ridiculous. Of course, why it was ridiculous was a mystery to James, but still! Dia would think it was so romantic and crap.

He sighed, studying Lily. Her hair was pulled up today, and it looked more crimson than auburn today than yesterday. A few wisps of hair had fallen out, probably during potions, which he knew she was extremely good at. After all, she was one of Slughorn's very favorites, and was in the 'Slug Club'. But, so was he, and that wasn't saying much. Peter wasn't in it, James remembered, wondering why Slug hadn't chosen him. Remus and Sirius were; Sirius was, well, Sirius (always a class favorite), and Remus was a werewolf, a fact that the whole staff knew. And he was second in every single class, after Lily. James was number three in here, fifth in potions, seventh in COMC, second in Arithmancy (Remus had taken Divination instead), third in Defense Against the Dark Arts, fourth in Charms, and his only class without Lily, Ancient Runes, he was first. But he never studied, except before exams, before which he crammed stuff in that had been done on days he and Sirius had decided to skive, and sneak into Hogsmeade with his father's invisibility cloak.

But, he always did his homework.

The bell rang, signaling lunch, which he always hurried to get to. Today, though, he packed his bag slowly, waving Sirius off to go on without him so he and Remus could meet up with Pete. The girls were chatting with the professor about the spell's incantation, something he would never in a million years do.

Oops! Did he just drop his quill? Why yes, he did!

He scrambled under the desk for it, and resurfaced as they were passing him. "Hurry up, Potter." McGonagall barked, though not in an unfriendly way. After all, he was her favorite male student. (Brilliant, in her opinion, though lazy and a bit too rambunctious. But he would hopefully settle down.) He hurried out, a few paces behind the girls. Dia turned around, and he pretended to be organizing his bag, or at least attempting to.

"Hi, James." She said happily, glancing at Lily, who once again, rolled her eyes. "Tough lesson, wasn't it?" She commented, walking backwards. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Sirius and me . . ."

"Sirius and I." May corrected, and he teasingly stuck his tongue out at her.

"Grammar rules are changed for me." He stated cockily, "Sirius and me don't pay attention that often."

Dia rolled her eyes, saying "Your mum won't be too glad when she hears that." She told him, challenging. He raised an eyebrow cockily, not showing any anxiety.

"Oh please, you know I've got just as much blackmail as you have on me." He said this arrogantly, glancing at Lily, who was chewing on her fingernails. True that he had to look up at her, she was nearly four inches taller than him, but he'd catch up in a few years. (He was 5'5" at the present moment; she 5'9")

"You're right, you do. And I could never betray my favorite cousin's trust." She joked.

"Hey, you're my favorite cousin as long as you don't wallop me with my own broom again." He told her, which May giggled at and Lily cracked a smile, her nails still being chewed on.

"James, I offer my deepest apologies if you weren't to blame for Fab knowing that I was the one that stuck the Cockroach Clusters in his bed, and charmed them to move." She raised an eyebrow as he laughed.

"Alright, I admit I deserved it." He confessed, running a hand through his hair; Lily rolled her eyes. Dia made a noise, slapping herself on the forehead.

"Bollocks, I forgot to show you the letter from my mother. She's taking away my broom because I . . .well, wasn't that nice to people when I was in possession of it and annoyed at certain people." James chortled.

"Ah, trusty Aunt Liz; I knew she always loved me more than you." He stated dramatically, as Dia grew red in the face.

"Oi, hush up. Ever since you were caught playing Quidditch inside Gram's manor, she thinks you're getting a little big for your kilts. But, so does your mum. And Grandmother. Hah, and your Father. Plus my brothers, and Molls, and. . . ."

"Thanks DD, I get it." He informed her, nodding, as she coloured at his mention of her old nickname.

Please read and review. I'm going to be writing short episodes from L&J's Hoggywarty days. Bonne Idée?


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